How honest is Seattle? Tea company finds out

The makers of Honest Tea set out of figure out which city in the U.S. has the most honesty. Get it?

Yeah, yeah. Very clever, tea people.

They conducted a little social experiment in cities across the country, setting up an honor-system beverage kiosk at spots with heavy foot traffic. Pedestrians were asked to pay $1 before taking a bottle of tea from the pop-up stands, and their actions were monitored.

Some coughed up a buck before taking the bottle. Some didn’t. And here in Seattle (and Kirkland — the Honest Tea folks had two kiosks), people paid 96 percent of the time.

Last year, Seattle scored a 97 percent rating and tied for second in the nation for honesty. But that was then.

A few additional observations Honest Tea made about Seattle kiosks this year:

Photo: Mike Lawrie / Getty Images

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People in Seattle who were wearing plaid were 86% honest.

People in Seattle who were wearing plaid were 86% honest.

Photo: Mike Lawrie / Getty Images

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Blondes and grey-haired people were not as honest brunettes.

Blondes and grey-haired people were not as honest brunettes.

Photo: Getty Images

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In Seattle, guys with beards were 96% honest.

In Seattle, guys with beards were 96% honest.

Photo: Johannes Simon / Getty Images

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Seattle men were more honest then woman.

Seattle men were more honest then woman.

Photo: Getty Images

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In Seattle, people on skateboards were less honest than people on bikes.

In Seattle, people on skateboards were less honest than people on bikes.

Photo: RAIGO PAJULA / AFP/Getty Images

How honest is Seattle? Tea company finds out

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A 96 percent honesty rating might sound pretty good, but it wasn’t too impressive in the context of the experiment. Of the 30 cities surveyed, only Salt Lake City and Oakland were found to be 100 percent honest.

Overall, Seattle was tied for sixth with Boston, Cincinnati, and Galveston in Texas.

The least honest cities? The lowest honesty scores went to pop-up stands in New York , the Los Angeles-area ‘hood of Venice, the South Side of Chicago and Denver.

You can find out more on the project’s website, where (last time I checked) Seattle and Portland are mistakenly swapped on their map. Portland’s honesty ranking, by the way, is 92 percent.